Dinner with Friends

TV may be mostly a wasteland these days, but every once in a while, a fine original film shows up on the tube. `Dinner With Friends' is certainly in that category. It takes the viewer deeply into the relationship between two couples and within each. They were best friends until one of the marriages hits the rocks. We see each side of that split and how it affects the other couple. Initially, sides seem to be taken along gender lines, but that reverses as each member of the separating couple finds new relationships. Is it fatal to the other marriage? Watch and see.

I haven't seen a movie this talky since "My Dinner with Andre." There the similarity between the two movies ends, though, because the dialogue in this movie is stilted, banal, predictable, and most of all, deadly dull. I don't think that either McDowell or Quaid were up to these roles; though I don't think the best actors imaginable could have breathed a lot of life into them. But these two come off almost as automatons, shifting emotional gears right on cue, just the way you expect them to. Like it's...it's...you know what it reminded me of? Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson in one of their "serious" moments in "Home Improvement." "OK, first 13 seconds of anger, then 22 seconds of self-defense, then a quick joke, 18 seconds of resolution, another joke, a hug, a kiss, and...CUT! And that's a wrap." I can only be glad that Quaid and McDowell don't talk to an avuncular next-door neighbor over a fence.

Clearly we're supposed to see the friends who are split up as the outwardly "perfect" people, charming, good-looking, bragging about the great sex with their new partners, rich, insisting that they're happy, but clearly we're supposed to identify with McDowell and Quaid, the introspective, homey couple who wonder if the fires have gone cold, but see, it's the very wondering that proves the fires *haven't* gone cold. I think.

And after all of the wrangling and the wrenching revelations and the anguished talk and the furrowed brows and the bitten lower lips, the whole thing is resolved by Quaid climbing on top of McDowell and the lights go out. All they needed was a little old-fashioned, introspective, homey sex. Not the wild, exotic, enjoyable kind, just the dull routine kind. In the picture-perfect bed in the picture-perfect bedroom of their picture-perfect cottage in picture-perfect Martha's Vineyard, with their picture-perfect sons asleep and all's well with the world. What seemed like acute marital appendicitis proved to be just a bit of gas.

Burp.

In a long series of original HBO movies, the predecessor being "WIT". "Dinner With Friends" turned out to be one of the best dramatic shows HBO has produced. First of all to get a top-notch director such as Norman Jewison and Pulitzer Prize winning play to work with, they were ahead before they began. All four major stars, Quaid, Kinnear, MacDowell, and Collette more than succeeded with their tasks, but it was the two long scenes between Greg and Dennis that raised this show to greater heights. Greg Kinnear has come so far in such a short time as an actor and he can hold his own with anybody now. I think I've seen every film Dennis Quaid has made and "DWF" is his finest work to date. If you've ever worked as a professional actor or director, you know that the easiest scene to play is "anger" and the most difficult is maintaining an audience's interest while you're playing low-key drama. The low-key counterplay and interaction between these two men was superb! It was often said of the late Geraldine Page that she could act in a whole movie or a three act play and know everything she was thinking if she had NO dialogue. Quaid and Kinnear were excellent listeners and responded to each other in the same way as Page. Besides the rich and powerful screenplay, the icing on the piece was placed with Dave Grusin's melodic score, a-la "The Fabulous Baker Boys". The 90+ minute movie ran the gamut of emotion for its audience. I was moved from tears to laughing out loud and anger to surprise. I only hope when next years Emmy nominations are announced, people will still remember this film in August 2001. Dennis Quaid and Greg Kinnear should be at the top of the list. Thumbs UP and four solid stars!

Dinner with Friends is somewhat unusual. Perhaps I''m just not as well-versed as I thought, but I haven't seen other movies about two couples that are friends, one splits up and its effect on the other couple.

This movie obviously originates as a stage play as it consists of four people sitting around and talking. As such, you can only make it so interesting, visually.

Because of this, the movie relies pretty much exclusively on the dialog and actors to make things interesting, and they mostly deliver. There were a few moments where the acting seemed very stage-style, for lack of a better term, but still decent overall.

I would caution you that you won't like this movie if you can't connect with the source material. It's a study of marriages and why some work and others don't as well as the effects of a divorce on friends. I would recommend it mostly to people who have had long- term relationships and/or are interested in them.

Gabe (Dennis Quaid) and Karen (Andie MacDowell) are a married couple with kids. They are regaling their friend Beth (Toni Collette) with food stories from their trip to Italy. Beth shocks them by revealing that Tom (Greg Kinnear) had cheated on her and wants a divorce. It forces Gabe and Karen to reconsider their longtime friends.

Norman Jewison has adapted a play. This starts great with interesting actors. I hope for better but that's not in the cards. It's a relationship movie where I'm not sure that I care about the relationships. It is still fascinating at first but over time, I lost interest. It feels too much like a play.